


Why'd You Jump?

by stardustandswimmingpools



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 12 year olds being sad and friendshippy, Angst, Dialogue Heavy, Extended Metaphors, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, anyway these tags are done please read it, friends don't lie, guys idk why people say dustin is the funny one, ha ha ha here have some pain, he's literally the one with the most common sense in the entire show, idk how to tag this guys just read it, idk man these are some deep thoughts for twelve yr olds to be having, ish, it's mostly just brain vomit here you go, it's not even a metaphor really, lucas comes in with the WROOOONG attitude, never forget, sadly lucas is irrelevant here but read it anyway for the lolz, this metaphor could get confusing, will the wise? more like DUSTIN the wise, you will not want to DIE after reading this is what im saying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 03:57:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8562958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustandswimmingpools/pseuds/stardustandswimmingpools
Summary: It's only been a week since El vanished, and it's a question that's been haunting Dustin for a week.





	

**Author's Note:**

> the metaphor in this can get confusing sorry  
> this is mostly just my attempt at writing stranger things stuff because i am having trouble characterizing them, but I was also thinking about like...why DID he jump?? mike what is wrong with you?? so here is my psychoanalyzation. kind of a character study, I guess.  
> hope you enjoy it & feel free to tell me if you thought it was shit. I like those comments too, as long as they're polite or constructive. :D

“Why’d you jump?”

A week after El vanishes, the question takes Mike by surprise. He and Dustin are sitting on the sofa in the Byers’ living room, waiting for Lucas. Today is the day Will gets released from the hospital, and Dustin, Mike and Lucas fully intend to be waiting with open arms in his house when he gets home.

But Lucas isn’t here yet — he called on his super-com to tell them he’s been “delayed by chores” and he’ll be there as soon as he can.

So Dustin and Mike have been sitting idly in the dim front room of the Byer house for the past five minutes in silence.

Until Dustin speaks up.

“Why’d you jump?”

Mike turns to look at him. “What? What are you talking about?”

“At the cliff, while we were looking for El,” Dustin says, and his voice falters on her name. “Why did you jump?”

Mike remembers. He remembers that mouth breather Troy and his maniacal look and his dumb friend and his sharp knife and the fear that pierced Mike’s heart.

“They were gonna hurt you,” he says, and looks down at his hands.

“They weren’t gonna hurt me,” Dustin says plainly. “They’re twelve. They wouldn’t. They would’ve been too scared.”

“I thought they were,” Mike argues weakly.

“Bullshit.” Dustin sits up straighter. “Mike, you say I’m one of your best friends? Fine. But, as you so frequently reminded El, friends don’t lie. So why did you _really_ jump?”

It stings, what Dustin is saying. Mike doesn’t want to think about El. He doesn’t want to remember that friends don’t lie. He just wants to forget she ever existed.

Seems he can’t do that, though.

“I…” Mike twists his fingers and tugs at the hem of his shirt. “I guess I...I knew she was gonna save me, somehow.”

“So you put your faith in that? A missing girl you hardly knew?” Mike’s answer hasn’t appeased Dustin — instead, he seems more upset. “Mike, you could have died. You _would_ have died, and you _knew_ that when you stepped off the cliff. The chance that El would come and save you was, like, impossible!”

“But she did,” Mike says quietly. “She came, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, but what if it happens again? Mike, look, you can’t step off the cliff every time,” Dustin says firmly. Is that a pleading undertone he hears? Suddenly this feels like it’s not just about the cliff.

“Dude, it’s in the past, okay? She saved me, I shouldn’t have stepped off, I get it. Let it go.” He turns away from Dustin and it’s quiet for a minute.

Then Dustin speaks again. “What I’m trying to say is that you’re not responsible for everything.”

Mike pauses and turns once more to meet Dustin’s eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, you’ve been sulking all week about El and about how it was your fault and you should have saved her and you shouldn’t have promised and you should have gotten her to safety and you should have done a whole ton of crap, blaming yourself, but you gotta accept that it wasn’t your fault!” Dustin says exasperatedly. “El made the decision to save us all. She chose to sacrifice herself. There was nothing you could have done. She threw you against a wall with her _mind_ , man.”

“I could’ve —” Mike starts to argue, but Dustin’s voice is louder and cuts him off.

“No, you couldn’t have, Mike! Have you even been listening to me? I’m telling you you couldn’t have saved her. She didn’t want to be saved.” Suddenly his voice gets quieter, gentler. “She stepped off the cliff, Mike. It doesn’t always have to be you. It can’t always be you.”

“Well what am I —” Mike swallows. He can feel angry tears forming and quickly blinks them away. “When I stepped off the cliff, _she_ saved me. But if she stepped off the cliff...there wasn’t anyone to catch her, Dustin!”

“I’m not saying there was anyone to catch her,” Dustin says. “I’m saying she stepped off the cliff _anyway_ , with the blind faith that maybe she wouldn’t die when she hit the water. Do you understand this metaphor, or should I just be literal?”

Mike looks down at his hands. They’ve been twisting the fabric of his shirt unconsciously and now it’s creased. “I get it,” he mumbles.

“Look, I know you would give anything to switch places with her, if she’s alive, wherever she is,” Dustin says. “But you can’t. So now you have to be the person who believes that there was something to catch her. And you can’t blame yourself for her sacrifice, because you did everything you could. It was her decision.”

Mike nods mechanically. “Yeah,” he says, his voice hollow. “I know.”

The door opens and startles them both as Lucas struts into the room. “Hello, boys,” he says, smirking. “Did I miss anything?”

The looks on his friends’ faces stops him in his tracks. “We all good in here?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Mike says quickly, and even forces a smile. “Come on, Will’s gonna be here any minute.”

Lucas pauses, shrugs, and sits down on the couch.

“So, what’s the plan for when he gets home? We gonna jump up and surprise him, or what?” he prompts.

Dustin catches Mike’s eyes and Mike casts his downward. He knows Dustin is right — that on the cliff, Dustin had done everything in his power to stop Mike from jumping.

In the end, Mike had jumped anyway. And in the end, it was El’s own decision to sacrifice herself with the faith that she would be okay, knowing that the sacrifice was worth it to save her friends.

And now, in her moment of plunging downward into nothing, Mike had to cross his fingers and believe and believe and _believe_ that there was something there to break the fall.

 

**Author's Note:**

> THANKs for reading this tragic tragedy of tragicness! hope you brought tissues. anyway, yell at me on tumblr @vivilevone or @justcuzfandoms, up to you, and have a great rest of your day!


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